Tokyo Olympics: Indian Badminton, Boxing Team reach Games Village

Indian Badminton Team spearheaded by PV Sindhu and Boxing team lead by Mary Kom has reached the Olympics Village after they were tested on their arrival at the Tokyo airport on Sunday.

Earlier in the day, an 88 member Indian contingent including 54 athletes arrived in Tokyo for the Tokyo 2020 Games which gets underway from July 23. Athletes and support staff in eight disciplines Badminton, Archery, Hockey, Judo, Swimming, Weightlifting, Gymnastics, and Table Tennis arrived in Tokyo.

The Indian Boxing team arrived in Tokyo from Italy. The India boxers had trained hard for the showpiece event in Italy and departed for Tokyo on Saturday.

The men's boxing side comprises number one and Asian Games champion Panghal (52kg), Manish Kaushik (63kg), Vikas Krishan (69kg), Ashish Kumar (75kg), and Satish Kumar (+91kg). The women's squad includes Mary Kom (51kg), Simranjit Kaur (60kg), Lovlina Borgohain (69kg), and Pooja Rani (75kg).

The first batch of Indian athletes was given a formal send-off on Saturday at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport. The athletes were addressed and sent their best wishes by Anurag Thakur, Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports, and Nisith Pramanik, Minister of State, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.

The ceremony on Saturday was also attended by Narinder Dhruv Batra, President, Indian Olympic Association; Rajeev Mehta, Secretary-General, Indian Olympic Association, and Sandip Pradhan, Director-General, SAI among other dignitaries to ensure the safety of players, entry into the event was only allowed of dignitaries and other officials who had a negative COVID test report.

Tokyo Olympics will begin on July 23 and the Games will run up to August 8 this year. The event was slated to be held last year, but it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

( With inputs from ANI )